Did you ever imagine that you would be hit by a drunk driver running a red light and as a result not walk for four years? That was Sari Mellman's experience that turned her away from law school entrance day and toward nutrition.
During rehabilitation from that accident, an alternative educational program was being offered from Bachelor of Science in Nutrition to a PhD in the Science of Nutrition.
Achieving this coupled with her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Miami, this opportunity appeared interesting and more importantly- possible. After her unexpected recovery, she was licensed by the State of Florida, Board of Medicine as a Nutrition Counselor, introduced herself to the community and found employment with a variety of medical centers and then a research laboratory. Soon after she was employed by the laboratory they were busy attempting to automate food allergy testing with blood serum rather than the traditional, skin testing, and then validate their results with double-blind studies.
Being involved with this process, made Sari realize that there were results obtained that would not be beneficial to the marketing of their findings because many test subjects were provoked by foods not found by their instrumentation. When she brought these results to their attention they were discounted (ignored) and she was instructed to tell those subjects having these reactions, that they were not having food reactions. When Sari inquired exactly what those subjects were experiencing she was told reactions to unknowns. It wasn't long at all when she realized that there were many more unknowns than knowns. Sari was given freedom to apply the results, whatever foods were not uncovered by their testing, and formulate diets for the participants. She began to see patterns and consistent weight loss when making specific adjustments to the patterns she uncovered.
When Sari wanted to share her findings, she was told that it was not important because they had to validate the instrumentation to sell tests and that she should go home and be a mother. What a slap in the face! They did not appreciate and value the reality she was showing them or that together they could change peoples lives; for the better.
Sari Mellman felt that she was being shown a truth as equally important. People were becoming well, their systems healing. As time went on it did not matter that the lab, scientists, and doctors were not listening. People were listening and they still are, eighteen years later!